General Discussion

pipi_k

(21,020 posts)

38. Well you can force a person

Tue Apr 29, 2014, 10:54 PM

Apr 2014

to go to a polling place, but you can't force him to vote.

In my little rural town, we have paper ballots.

If someone didn't want to vote, he would sign in, take the ballot, pretend to mark it, fold it back up, and put it into the ballot box.

As far as an actual voting machine goes, what's to stop someone from signing in, then totally skipping even going into one of those things?

And even if someone forces a person to mark a paper ballot or pull levers, what's to prevent that person from just pulling or marking whatever he wants to, without thought or care?

Is that really what people want?

Force people to vote even if it means the people being forced to do it write in their own candidates on a paper ballot (like Mickey Mouse, etc.) or start just pulling levers because they don't give a shit?

Yeah...brilliant idea.

Edit history

Please sign in to view edit histories.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

44 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Compulsory Voting - How much time in prison should people get for "Failure To Vote" [View all] FrodosPet Apr 2014 OP

Tie tax refunds to voting randys1 Apr 2014 #1

Something like this would be good. temporary311 Apr 2014 #3

Good idea but Republican politicians hate voting and democracy randys1 Apr 2014 #5

A simple and not too huge fine should be sufficient. SheilaT Apr 2014 #2

Loss of anything federal and state for a year until the next vote yeoman6987 Apr 2014 #35

Mandatory voting is a stupid idea. Throd Apr 2014 #4

Thank you Boreal Apr 2014 #13

What Throd said. WillowTree Apr 2014 #30

+1 JVS Apr 2014 #41

30 days in jail .... oldhippie Apr 2014 #6

Having the rich blow it off could help us KamaAina Apr 2014 #9

But that wasn't thequestion of the OP oldhippie Apr 2014 #10

I think a short term in a re-education camp followed by a denouncing your parents in a tribunal... Jesus Malverde Apr 2014 #7

I tend to agree FrodosPet Apr 2014 #12

Gotcha... Jesus Malverde Apr 2014 #14

I'd be careful with that "... some others think it is a great idea." oldhippie Apr 2014 #21

It would have been easier to just delete your original reply. Jesus Malverde Apr 2014 #22

I didn't need to rationalize anything ... oldhippie Apr 2014 #24

I like THIS reply. joeglow3 Apr 2014 #27

I was referring to a different thread FrodosPet Apr 2014 #23

I never looked at the other thread ... oldhippie Apr 2014 #25

Depends. How long between sentencing and the next election? lumberjack_jeff Apr 2014 #8

Could you provide a link to that thread? Jenoch Apr 2014 #11

The thread I saw advocating compulsory voting FrodosPet Apr 2014 #15

Compulsory voting works for us Violet_Crumble Apr 2014 #36

Pay everyone to vote instead. ZombieHorde Apr 2014 #16

Hell, just make it mandatory to give them time off work. A federal law, so the red states can't nomorenomore08 Apr 2014 #18

Perhaps making voting last more than one day would be good too. nt ZombieHorde Apr 2014 #19

Make it easy to vote instead of raising obstacles. Agnosticsherbet Apr 2014 #17

+1 nomorenomore08 Apr 2014 #20

Drawing and quartering is an effective penalty pinboy3niner Apr 2014 #26

This could only work if there's a NONE OF THE ABOVE option. MADem Apr 2014 #28

Lots of folk don't vote. Force them to vote, and we'd just get a lot of ballots with Mickey Mouse struggle4progress Apr 2014 #29

No prison. Waterboard the bastards... TreasonousBastard Apr 2014 #31

Oh, Fer fuck sake. If you don't vote, then are putting yourself out of the game. madinmaryland Apr 2014 #32

An older Republican friend of mine admits he's not a guy that believes everyone should vote. brewens Apr 2014 #33

Compulsory voting forces uninformed voters to make choices they're not equipped to make, hughee99 Apr 2014 #34

Compulsory voting is ridiculous LittleBlue Apr 2014 #37

Well you can force a person pipi_k Apr 2014 #38

Anyone too unmotivated to vote on their own is someone I don't want voting in the first place. Jgarrick Apr 2014 #39

No nation in the world jails people for failure to vote brooklynite Apr 2014 #40

I'm sorry. I had to push the extreme to prove a point. FrodosPet Apr 2014 #42

No, no. This is America. Lotto tickets when you vote. It will work. Trust me. We love to gamble. McCamy Taylor Apr 2014 #43

I think the 1st Amendment pretty much puts the kabosh on any penalty for not voting. Warren DeMontague Apr 2014 #44